How GPS vehicle tracking can transform fleet management?

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According to a research study by Frost and Sullivan, GPS vehicle tracking systems can raise your fleet’s productivity and vehicle utilization by 10-15% and 15-20% respectively and reduce fuel consumption by 20-25%, idle time by 20-30%, miles driven by 5-10% and overtime by 10-15%. In addition, these GPS based systems put labor saving to 30minutes per day, per driver. Moreover, there is more to GPS vehicle tracking systems than reduce cost and improving vehicle performance.

To understand the full scope what a vehicular technology around GPS is capable of, we must understand what vehicle telematics is.

An ingenious vehicle telematics technology called GPS

Basically, telematics is a crash-resistant black box that receives wireless information, information more advanced than broadcast radio, and does something useful with it. If you know what flight black boxes are for, you’ll have an idea.

Over the years, standard vehicle telematics have evolved to include a cellular data modem, GPS, a backup battery, and connection to sensors. This had led to digital telematics.

Telematics makes your car safer, keeps you from getting lost, summons roadside assistance at the press of a button, routes you around accidents, auto-dials 911 if you’re in the accident, and starts your EV charging at 2 a.m. when rates are cheapest.

GPS vehicle tracking makes an integral part of vehicle telematics and is responsible for smart fleet management systems of today.

Size doesn’t matter

GPS vehicle tracking systems are easily scalable, they can deliver these results for fleets of all types and sizes. Whether you run a service business with 10 or fewer vehicles; a statewide public agency with thousands of cars, trucks, and in-field assets; or anything in between, you can control costs while operating your entire fleet more efficiently.

Smart fleet management systems

GPS vehicle tracking that powers smart fleet managements systems, leverages on telematics from each vehicle of the fleet to improve driver safety by monitoring speeding, hard braking, and other risky driving habits, reduce greenhouse emissions and meet other environmental goals, route drivers more efficiently to improve customer service and on-time deliveries, increase revenues by taking on more business without adding drivers or vehicles and gain a competitive advantage by improving overall fleet efficiency.

Telematics that form smart fleet management system of today has evolved to include engine diagnostic tools (OBD), GPS, IoT devices and sensors, cloud storage and computing, and 4th generation data networks. GPS tracking has given birth to many applications. One of the prominent applications is real-time vehicle tracking.

Real time vehicle tracking using GPS

An onboard GPS unit attached to a compatible adapter under the driver’s seat tracks location based info like a vehicle’s geometrical co-ordinates, speed, and other performance metrics around the clock and pushes it to cloud over a high-speed data connection.

Any person that has access to that cloud can watch real-time movement of the vehicles on a map with the help of a mobile or web app, regardless of the screen in front of him.

Build mobile app can also be to receive push notification in the form of vehicle and performance alerts. An over-speeding driver is hard to spot on a large map, not when you receive an alert on this.

Asset tracking with GPS and IoT devices

For logistics businesses, tracking a vehicle’s location is as important as tracking assets it carrying.

With the help of GPS and IoT devices and sensors installed in and around fixed and mobile assets: trailers, generator, and other large piece of equipment, logistics companies can track the location of their assets in real-time in field or on road. This takes places in the same way fleet companies track their vehicles in real-time, as explained above.

Performance tracking with OBD and GPS units

On-board diagnostics monitors fuel usage, emissions, and other engine and vehicle performance metrics and reports them in real-time along with the everyday data GPS units. If trucks in a fleet are consuming more on route B, the fleet operator will learn about it and reroute the trucks on route A rather, thus saving on fuel cost. Moreover, it can tell a rowdy driver from a decent driver.

Data Reporting and Analytics

In addition to the data fed in real-time to enable GPS fleet, performance and asset tracking system, lots of data is stored both locally in the vehicles and in the cloud storage. While a naysayer will make no sense of the data and dump it make room for more, the data, in a tabulated form, can give some interesting insight about a fleet’s operation.

Modern analytics software can tabulate the data to show you some interesting facts and figures in the form of interactive graphs about the progress or decline of your operations. For example, fuel consumed by your fleet last month vs this month.

The problem is a major chunk of data reported by the fleet telematics system is raw. That is an analytics software can’t read it. Is that data any worth?

‘Big Data’ puts you in control

Over a period of time, the raw, presumed useless data from vehicles’ telematics will easily tend 100s of TBs in volume, even PB. By employing Big Data techniques, GPS vehicle tracking systems’ robust reporting capabilities will give you a bigger picture overview of your fleet’s performance.

Fleet management systems characteristically come with many built-in reports providing detailed data on the whole lot: gas usage to idle time, emissions, instances of overspeeding, fleet activity, and more. These reports enable enhanced analysis and policymaking by letting the fleet administrators to set-up and manage the data in ways that meet their particular fleet management requirements.

For instance, they can:

Filter reports to a particular vehicle, asset or a performance parameter

Real-time notifications you take immediate action on

To improve this momentous view of what’s up with fleet vehicles and those driving it, GPS systems offer real-time alerts letting those managing them to bring pending management decisions on the table the very moment.

E.g., if a vehicle is over speeding way beyond the prescribed limits, the GPS system will send a notification to the fleet handler’s smartphone, who can take apt action the very moment. It can immobilize the engine of the vehicle. Likewise, these notifications can be personalized in several ways.

Altering notification by vehicles, drivers, or groups of each

Electronic-mail and SMS alerts

Channeling notification according to drivers, customers, supervisors, or the management team

Third party integrations

Further, GPS fleet management systems can outspread your data analysis competences with 3rd party integration: Garmin, Esri® ArGIS® GeoEvent Processor, and AssetWorks. These extended competences deliver a more sophisticated, exhaustive aspect at what each vehicle is doing and where they’re positioned.

By displaying the right info at the exact time, GPS systems give fleet owners unparalleled control over fleet routine, permitting you to make calculated moves to lower costs, raise operation efficiency and improve productivity.

Fleet management transformed

According to Frost & Sullivan, fuel and salaries alone account for an everyday fleet’s operational more than half of expenses and the remaining half includes repairs, upkeep, emissions inspections, cover, and additional operational expenses.

The cost tends to add considerably. If a telematics system equipped with GPS, IoT, and OBD unit cuts fuel consumption by 15 percent and overtime by 10-15 percent, vehicle utilization and productivity will reach another level.

It will allow fleet management companies make more with a fleet of the same size. Their drivers tend to remain happier and vigilant. The fleet company spends less on predictive maintenance tasks and repairs and pay lower insurance premium.

The smart fleet management solution cuts greenhouse emissions, improves driver safety, expands customer service, and more. Eventually, the system will alter how people manage their fleets with the purpose of cut costs and do more with less.

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co-founded Peerbits, one of the leading app development company USA, in 2011. His visionary leadership and flamboyant management style have yield fruitful results for the company. He believes in sharing his strong knowledge base with a leaned concentration on entrepreneurship and business.